Bernie Sanders is an imperialist, fake-socialist company man for the Dems, says Glen Ford

Sanders finds it “impossible to accept” a People’s Party draft-Bernie movement to run for president. Hmm.

No 1985 Posted by fw, June 17, 2017

Glen Ford

“Leftish Democrats insist they can reform the corporate-run, Russia-obsessed Democratic Party from the inside, but most pay little attention to war. However, ‘War is not a side issue in the United States; it is the central political issue, on which all the others turn.’ Some think Bernie Sanders should run with the Peoples Party. But, ‘Sanders is a warmonger, not merely by association, but by virtue of his own positions.’…. At last weekend’s People’s Summit, in Chicago, National Nurses United executive director RoseAnn DeMoro endorsed Sanders for a mission he finds impossible to accept: a run for president in 2020 on the Peoples Party ticket. Sanders already had his chance to run as a Green, and refused. He is now the second most important Democrat in the country, behind the ultra-corrupt Bill-Hillary Clinton machine — and by far the most popular.” —Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report

What is this — Get Bernie week? If it is, it’s long overdue.

In addition to Ford’s article, three other writer’s took aim at Sanders this past week.

Independent researcher Paul Street took a shot at Bernie in a piece reposted on this blog, writing:

“With Bernie of late, we have gotten yet more evidence that he is in fact the imperialist and sheep-dogging fake-socialist Democratic Party company man that some of us the ‘hard radical’ Left said he was.” Glen Ford quoted Street in his (Ford’s) article, reposted below.

“Sanders said that the Democratic Party ‘cannot be on the side of Wall Street, or the fossil fuel industry, or drug companies.’ All of this is very accurate, but where is the pressing debate and political platform that call out the Democrats for voting and supporting nearly 16 years of endless wars and endless support of military contractors and war profiteering? Where’s the connection between this greed and profit and the gun and rifle massacres that happen with certain regularity on the streets of the U.S.?”

“…2016 was a turning point in your career. The $1 million payday you received last year is payment for services rendered during your intervention in last year’s Democratic primaries. Your fraudulent claims to be leading a ‘political revolution’ against the ‘billionaire class’ were designed to corral popular anger and promote illusions in the Democratic Party, one of the two parties of the American corporate-financial aristocracy, as a party representing the interests of working people.”

Not as recent but just as damaging is Chris Hedge’s July 10, 2016 speech explaining the problem of Sanders’ ties to the Democratic Party:

“…the Senator doesn’t understand the fact that ‘unless we destroy the war machine and empire, this country is going right down the tubes.”

Below is an abridged repost of Glen Ford’s article with my added subheadings and text highlighting. To read the full article on the Black Agenda Report’s website, click on the following linked title.

Leftish Democrats insist they can reform the corporate-run, Russia-obsessed Democratic Party from the inside, but most pay little attention to war. However, “War is not a side issue in the United States; it is the central political issue, on which all the others turn.” Some think Bernie Sanders should run with the Peoples Party. But, “Sanders is a warmonger, not merely by association, but by virtue of his own positions.”

Sanders, imperialist, fake-socialist company man for the Democratic Party, favors more sanctions against Russia

Bernie Sanders is a highly valued Democrat, the party’s Outreach Director and therefore, as Paul Street writes, “the imperialist and sheep-dogging fake-socialist Democratic Party company man that some of us on the ‘hard radical’ Left said he was.” Sanders is a warmonger, not merely by association, but by virtue of his own positions. He favors more sanctions against Russia, in addition to the sanctions levied against Moscow in 2014 and 2016 for its measured response to the U.S-backed fascist coup against a democratically elected government in Ukraine. Rather than surrender to U.S. bullying, Russia came to the military aid of the sovereign and internationally recognized government of Syria in 2015, upsetting the U.S. game plan for an Islamic jihadist victory.

Mimicking The Godfather, Sanders suggested “make them an offer they can’t refuse” to get them to the table

Back in April of this year, on NBC’s Meet The Press, Sanders purposely mimicked The Godfather when asked what he would do to force the Russians “to the table” in Syria:

“I think you may want to make them an offer they can’t refuse. And that means tightening the screws on them, dealing with sanctions, telling them that we need their help, they have got to come to the table and not maintain this horrific dictator.”

Of course, it is the United States that has sabotaged every international agreement to rein in its jihadist mercenaries in Syria.

Regime-changer Sanders thinks the US is above international law

Sanders is a regime-changer, which means he thinks the U.S., in combination with self-selected allies, is above international law, i.e., “exceptional.”

“We’ve got to work with countries around the world for a political solution to get rid of this guy [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] and to finally bring peace and stability to this country, which has been so decimated.”

Sanders urged the US to do what it was already doing – training jihadist fighters

During the 2016 campaign, Sanders urged the U.S. to stop acting unilaterally in the region, but instead to collaborate with Syria’s Arab neighbors — as if the funding and training of jihadist fighters had not been a joint effort with Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf monarchies, all along.

Sanders has no principled position against the imperial mission of the United States

According to Politico, “As late as 2002,” Sanders’ campaign website declared that “the defense budget should be cut by 50 percent over the next five years.” But all the defense-cutting air went out of his chest after Bush invaded Iraq. Nowadays, Sanders limits himself to the usual noises about Pentagon “waste,” but has no principled position against the imperial mission of the United States. “We need a strong military, it is a dangerous world,” Sanders told voters in Iowa, during the campaign. Like Paul Street said, he’s an “imperialist…Democratic Party company man.”

Sanders won’t accept a draft-Bernie offer to run for president with the People’s Party

At last weekend’s People’s Summit, in Chicago, National Nurses United executive director RoseAnn DeMoro endorsed Sanders for a mission he finds impossible to accept: a run for president in 2020 on the Peoples Party ticket. Sanders already had his chance to run as a Green, and refused. He is now the second most important Democrat in the country, behind the ultra-corrupt Bill-Hillary Clinton machine — and by far the most popular.

Sanders doesn’t even have to exert himself to string the Peoples Party folks along; they eagerly delude themselves. However, a Sanders-led Party would still be an imperialist, pro-war party.

Sanders loves being the hero of the phony left, the gimmick-seeking left-liberals

On top of that, Sanders loves being the hero of the phony left, the guy who gimmick-seeking left-liberals hope will create an instant national party for them, making it unnecessary to build a real anti-war, pro-people party from scratch to go heads up with the two corporate machines.

The U.S. does need a social democratic party, but it must be anti-war

The U.S. does need a social democratic party, but it must be anti-war, otherwise it commits a fraud on social democracy. The United States is the imperial superpower, the main military aggressor on the planet. Its rulers must be deprived of the political ability to spend trillions on war, and to kill millions, or they will always use the “necessity” of war to enforce austerity. The “left” domestic project will fail.

“Left” imperialism isn’t just evil, it is self-defeating and stupid

For those of us from the Black Radical Tradition, anti-imperialism is central. Solidarity with the victims of U.S. imperialism is non-negotiable, and we can make no common cause with U.S. political actors that treat war as a political side show, an “elective” issue that is separate from domestic social justice. This is not just a matter of principle, but also of practical politics. “Left” imperialism isn’t just evil, it is self-defeating and stupid.